Good - the rain stopped, I didn’t spend a lot of money traveling to LA for this game, Mack finally getting some playing time, penalties (which have continued to improve all season), and there won’t be any receipts pulled from the game thread this week. Ryan Williams didn’t drop a pass, 4 catches for 20 yards.
Bad - how much being healthy helped us. Our clean injury report and a loaf of bread wouldn’t even get me a sammich today. Our lack of energy on offense. Our run defense. Our QB pressure after the first couple of drives. Our play calling again. Indiana being faster than us in the run game and taking the edges, outrunning us when they broke free, etc. The false since of hope the Oklahoma win gave a lot of our fan base. That 4th down call when only down 0-3 was terrible and screamed of desperation when we didn’t need that.
Ugly - we were embarrassed, not beaten, embarrassed, three times this year. That is going to take some getting used to. Losing is one thing, getting embarrassed is another. I would imagine today was our worst bowl beat down in the 100+ year history of our program. We lost by 14 to an awful team, 21 point slaughter to Georgia and this total dismantling today. Total dismantling. Our scoring average for the season going down from last year which was down from CNS’ last season, and all with an offensive minded coach. Mendoza just absolutely raping us and making us almost like it. He raped us so bad we were embarrassed to report it to authorities. Their offense against our defense was like a slow moving train wreck. Our offensive line, which had been nothing short of putrid all season. They stink, they stunk, they were abysmal and were not an Alabama o-line. Bama 1-8 on 3rd and 4th down. Ouch!! Indiana 8-11 on 3rd down (at the time of this writing).
Looking back on the season, I’m not sure Grubb was an upgrade, based on results. We were sure happy to get him, but we regressed offensively in the run game and scoring (I’m not sure how we stacked up passing year over year, haven’t looked). Special teams and offense regressed this year.
We’ve lost 8 games the last 2 seasons, but we did make the SECCG and the final 8, somehow. We’re embarrassed in both games though. We shot our wad at Georgia and started declining soon after.
I believe we’ve seen the last of Ty on the field in Crimson. I like him, but he’s not the answer. How we ended up with 2 QB’s with mental hurdles the last 2 years is beyond me.
I’m holding a glass and toasting that we beat UT and Auburn, that makes the season palatable to me.
Damn guys, I can’t remember when we last lost a game by this much. They took our pride, used it to wipe their ass, and then flushed it down the shitter. I’ve gotten accustomed to losing the last 2 seasons and have mentioned that. It doesn’t bother me as much anymore. But losing like this is hard to swallow.